Highway 93 South has been closed a second time this week on Friday afternoon (Aug. 4) due to increased activity on the south side of the Verdant Creek wildfire. Parks Canada continues to fight the Verdant Creek wildfire on the other side of the B.C.
Highway 93 South has been closed a second time this week on Friday afternoon (Aug. 4) due to increased activity on the south side of the Verdant Creek wildfire.
Parks Canada continues to fight the Verdant Creek wildfire on the other side of the B.C. Alberta border from the Spray and Bow valleys heading into what is expected be a busy long weekend for the entire region.
Parks incident commander for the Verdant fire Jane Park provided an update on Friday (Aug. 4), and recommended those travelling into B.C. via Highway 93 South to check conditions before they head out.
Later that afternoon, the highway was closed due to increased wildfire activity. The highway was shut on Wednesday (Aug. 2), due to poor visibility on the road due to smoke from the fire and then reopened later that evening.
"We do recommend to the travelling public, as we are going into a long weekend, that people try to travel between 7 a.m. and 2 p.m. and we will try our best to keep (the highway) open for that time," Park said.
She said the best way to stay updated on the road's status, as the fire is active in the Vermilion Crossing area of Kootenay National Park and visible from the highway, is through Drive B.C. and Alberta 511, as well as through Parks Canada's official updates.
"As people are likely aware, it has been extremely sunny, extremely warm, quite dry and windy and we have not had rain for a while," Park said. "It is not unusual for a wildfire to continue burning under these circumstances and we are into higher than normal fire behaviour and fire weather.
"The firefighters and everyone on the ground are tyring our best and focusing on key points where we want to hold this fire, so we can hopefully get some relief from the weather."
While Parks Canada fire and vegetation specialists focus on the wildfire on a daily basis, Park said help has been brought in to begin to look long term into the future as to what kind of weather would help.
"There are multiple stages that we plan for," she said. "There is the immediate planning for today and tomorrow and our planning sections work on fire behaviour predictions based on fire weather forecasts in the next three to five days.
"We also have working in the background contractors and others helping us with long-range forecasting in terms of what kind of precipitation event should we count on in terms of extinguishing this."
As for work on the fire, Park said there are 100 people on the ground actively fighting the fire on two fronts, the northern and southwestern edges, along with 10 helicopters supporting that work.
"In the last few days we have seen limited growth on the north end of the fire that is the priority for this fire in both the Simpson and Talc Lake areas within Kootenay National Park," she said. "We have started to go with direct suppression on that north end, which means we have fire crews on the ground, as well as aircraft in the air directly against the line of the fire."
Weather is definitely influencing the wildfire according to Park, with cooler temperatures in the Banff area juxtaposed by drier and hotter weather on the other side of the Continental Divide in the Columbia and Vermilion valleys. That means Bow Valley residents can continue to expect smoke to affect them on a daily basis into the near future.
The fire size estimate has been revised to 11,000 hectares and Park said the challenge of estimating the wildfire's size comes from the fact parts of it are in remote, steep backcountry locations, as well as smoke limiting visibility of the ground.
"That is a significant increase from the last more formal update on the area," she said. "It does not necessarily mean it doubled in size overnight, but there wrere a lot of parts of the fire we could not access to map."
Additional closures have been put in place for Kootenay and Banff national parks including most recently for Kootenay Park Lodge, Hawk Creek and the Ball Pass areas. Beginning Saturday (Aug. 5) a proactive closure will be in place for the southern portion of the Rockwall Trail. Go to www.parkscanada.gc.ca/verdantfire for the most up to date information on closures.
Sunshine Village ski area remains closed and Parks Canada's fire operations are being coordinated out of the lodge area, as it is very close to the northern edge of the fire that is of the most concern when it comes to getting into the Bow Valley.
Park said, however, the most active part of the fire is in the south, and being fought by crews from B.C. Wildfire and B.C. Parks as well. Strategies being considered as it burns includes using landscape features like avalanche and rockslide paths to contain the fire's path.
The primary strategy, said Park, is to keep the highway corridor open for vehicle traffic, with monitors on site checking fire behaviour and visibility throughout the day. Protective measures are being taken for infrastructure along the highway as well.
The Verdant Creek fire began on July 15 as a result of lightning.
